Home again! News staffers return to WOAI offices

WOAI’s news personalities are set to return to their own downtown studios, today and Monday, after two days of sharing space with sister station KABB.

Co-anchors Randy Beamer and Delaine Mathieu; weatherman John Gerard; and sportscaster Don Harris moved into the Fox affiliate’s digs – at Loop 410 and Babcock – temporarily on Friday, as did the weekend newscast crew on Saturday.

They broadcast their respective newscasts from those KABB studios, where KABB co-anchors Cynthia Lee and Michael Valdes (seen with Beamer and Mathieu in photo above) also do their 9 p.m. newscast.

The reason: They needed to clear out while cleaning crews did a thorough sweep and airing-out following a fire that engulfed the second floor of the WOAI building Tuesday.

Though newscast personnel attempted to return to business as usual on Wednesday and Thursday, the fire’s aftermath left some employees feeling uncomfortable. Some even said they felt a bit dizzy and nauseous.

News 4’s morning show – Leslie Bohl, Mike Garofalo, Shelly Miles (seen in photo with Monica Taylor) and Siobhain Anders (filling in for weatherman Albert Flores) – even joined the “Fox News First” bunch – led by Taylor and Ernie Zuniga — and simulcast the fun results Friday on both KABB and WOAI.

All were grateful for their sister station’s generosity, as WOAI newscasters remarked on their Facebook pages. “We love our FOX 29 friends and are deeply appreciative of their help!” Delaine wrote.

But as always, it’s always great to return home. The News 4 newscasts “will resume at WOAI on Sunday,” WOAI General Manager John Seabers wrote in an e-mail today. The 5 and 10 p.m. shows are co-anchored by Jaie Avila and Jacqueline Ortiz (photos below) .

“After an intensive cleaning of our downstairs facility and 48 hours of ‘scrubbing the air’,” Seabers added, “we are satisfied the downstairs of our building is 100% operational for our employees.

However, work is still to be done, he said, “on the harder hit upstairs.”

The partnership between the two news operations – which are both owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group – certainly was put to good use in these times of fire-induced hardship.

Miles, who will again host her “San Antonio Living” show from its regular studio, aptly summed it up in one word on Facebook: “Teamwork!”